Mario Kart-inspired complex ahead?
An apartment building inspired by Mario Kart is planned for the Roosevelt Row Arts District, and the team behind the project hopes it inspires some more interesting architecture in the Phoenix area.
The building, called Rainbow Road after the final course in all of the Mario Kart games, is the first Phoenix project for both Zac Cohen and Lev Libeskind, the developer and architect, respectively, who have worked together in other states and internationally.
“I’d lived in Phoenix before and my father lived in Phoenix for a long time, so I was very familiar,” said Cohen, who lived and worked in Europe before moving back to Phoenix. “Finally, there is some activity in downtown Phoenix.”
Cohen, managing partner of InveStellar Corp., and Libeskind, head of Libeskind Studio Design and son of renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, “share a vision” for the benefits of highquality architecture in a community, Cohen said.
“Architecture is the mother of all art,”
Cohen said. “These are livable works of art.”
Phoenix has an opportunity to be a center for high-quality architecture as the city grows, the two said.
The complex is planned on a site near First and Portland streets that totals about a one-third acre. It will include 36 apartment units and a commercial space on the ground floor that likely will be a restaurant or coffee shop. The units will range from one to three bedrooms, and some of the two- and three-bedroom units will be multistory lofts with video-game inspired stairs.
The building will include a courtyard and rooftop, which the two plan to open to the public on First Fridays for art displays and events.
The courtyard will feature its own rainbow road, going from the interior courtyard to the sidewalk, done in the same colors as the video game.